To handle a call spike without hiring, put an AI Voice Agent in front of your queue. It answers calls before they join the queue, resolves the question that is causing the spike, verifies callers, routes the rest to the right team and offers an alternative to waiting. That absorbs the peak without scheduling extra agents. It works best when you know in advance which questions cause a spike, and when your team keeps the calls that really need a person.

This article covers what to do when the phones won’t stop ringing, and how to prepare for the next spike.

Why call spikes happen

Spikes in customer service almost always have an identifiable cause. They fall into two groups:

• Predictable. Monday morning, the day after an invoice run, the start of a season, a price change you announced yourself.
• Unpredictable. A storm, an outage, a mistake in a mailing. Carglass regularly faces demand peaks, especially after storms and hail damage (Carglass). At Unigarant, a wave of calls followed the announcement in September 2023 that fatbikes would no longer be insured (Unigarant).

Extra staff rarely solves a spike. A spike lasts hours or days, new agents need weeks of onboarding, and if you staff for the peak, you have too many people the rest of the time. What remains is waiting: callers hang up, call again and make the queue even longer.

What callers actually ask during a spike

A spike rarely consists of a hundred different questions. Usually one topic dominates. That is exactly what happened at Unigarant after the fatbike announcement: within a day, AssistYou AI Analytics showed that fatbike calls were dominant, and that some customers had received the wrong letter. Unigarant then split future communications into smaller batches.

That is the core of handling a spike: once you know which question is causing it, you can handle that question directly. And sometimes you can remove the cause itself.

Five ways to absorb a call spike

1. Resolve the peak question directly

Many peak questions have the same answer for everyone. Is there an outage, was a letter sent in error, has a condition changed? Let the AI Voice Agent answer that question and, where needed, handle the next step. At Unigarant, the AI Voice Agent completes whole processes, such as cancelling a policy. How to build such a flow and test it before it goes live is covered in how to build a voicebot.

2. Verify and collect before an agent picks up

Calls that do need a person can still be shorter. Let the AI Voice Agent verify the caller and record the reason for the call. The agent then starts with the details on screen, not with “can I have your customer number?”. Carglass verifies callers against data in Salesforce CRM.

3. Route to the right team

During a spike, a misrouted call costs double: two agents, two waits. Eneco replaced its IVR menu entirely with the AI Voice Agent and has since seen 47% fewer misrouted calls than with its previous IVR (Eneco). What poor routing costs you is covered in the hidden cost of poor call routing.

4. Offer a callback instead of a wait

A caller who knows they will be called back does not need to sit in the queue. How to schedule callbacks well is covered in smart callback requests for high-volume service teams.

5. Follow up on missed calls

Not every caller keeps waiting. Carglass recovers missed calls with automated SMS or WhatsApp follow-up. What a missed call costs you is covered in how much does a missed call actually cost.

What stays with your team

An AI Voice Agent absorbs the repetition, not the exception. During a spike, three kinds of calls stay with people:

• Complaints and angry callers. The tone is sharper during a spike. Those calls need someone who can listen and make a decision.
• Complex cases. A claim with several parties, a payment arrangement, an exception to the rules.
• Calls the AI Voice Agent does not understand. After two failed attempts the caller reaches an agent, with the details already collected.

Removing the repetition is also good for your team. Why repetitive calls in particular burn agents out is covered in 3 kinds of calls that burn out your team.

Prepare for the next spike

Handling a spike starts before it arrives:

1. Build a peak calendar. List invoice runs, mailings, price changes and seasonal moments. Plan with marketing and finance, because their decisions cause your spikes.
2. Let customer service review outbound communication. A letter that raises questions produces calls. After the fatbike spike, Unigarant sends communications in smaller batches.
3. Have a flow ready for the expected question. Build and test it in advance, so on the day you only need to switch it on.
4. Agree who decides. Who switches the flow on, who adjusts the wording when the situation changes, and who switches it off again?
5. Measure afterwards. Wait time, abandoned calls, calls the AI Voice Agent resolved and repeat calls. Compare with an earlier spike without an AI Voice Agent.

Frequently asked questions

How do you handle call spikes without hiring? Find out which question is causing the spike, let an AI Voice Agent resolve that question, verify callers before an agent picks up, route to the right team and offer a callback instead of a wait. Your team keeps the complaints and complex calls.

What is an AI phone assistant for peak times? An AI Voice Agent that answers calls before they join your queue. It resolves the question behind the spike, verifies callers, routes the rest to the right team and offers an alternative to waiting, such as a callback.

How do you find out why call volume suddenly went up? By analyzing calls instead of guessing. At Unigarant, AssistYou AI Analytics showed within a day that fatbike calls were dominant and that some customers had received the wrong letter.

Which calls stay with agents during a spike? Complaints, emotionally charged calls, complex cases and calls the AI Voice Agent does not understand after two attempts. Those reach an agent, with the details already collected.

What do you do with callers who hang up during a spike? Follow up with them. Carglass recovers missed calls with automated SMS or WhatsApp follow-up, so a caller who hung up is not lost.

Handling call spikes with AssistYou

The AssistYou platform handles 1 million calls per month, for contact centers in energy, insurance, mobility and retail, among other sectors. See how the AI Voice Agent works on the product page and how pricing is structured on the pricing page.

Want to know how to absorb your next spike? Contact sales.

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